i’ll chisel your face till you look like the woman of my dreams by Flourish Joshua

— for Bimbo Sesan

In the beginning, I was an

imbecile every Sunday,

grinning mouthfuls of maize

from the tickles of a butterfly's joke.

Your body was (& still is) a new

testament where i was a diligent

apostle of the members of your body.

I am fond of dreaming of

a shy fire—the one that swallows

up brave hearts. I like to dream

of a continent of virgins,

where your body is a country

with my name stuck in its

throat like a rude bone.

as the dean of my thinking faculty,

i’ll chisel your face till you look like

the woman of

my dreams.

---

Flourish Joshua (he/him) is a poet from Nigeria. A NaiWA poetry scholar and second runner-up of the 7th Ngozi Agbo Prize for Essay Writing. He's a BellaNaija Contributor, Managing Editor at NRB and on the editorial board at Frontier Poetry Journal. He tweets @fjspeaks.